


Just Before the End

by Mage_Pages



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: But there's some undertones and what not, Gen, I'm new and confused, Relationships aren't really the focus I guess, how do tags work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-22 10:19:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8282381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mage_Pages/pseuds/Mage_Pages
Summary: A rewrite of a story I wrote awhile ago on FFN. A scientific experiment ties the web of fate inexorably together and triggers a dangerous chain of events no one can face alone. A Yogscast origin story that largely takes place before/during the SoI storyline. It's quite long, fair warning.





	1. The Spaceman

**Author's Note:**

> (Author's Note-Hey guys! This was a story that I wrote awhile ago, but never quite finished. After awhile I went back to it, but I was somewhat dispirited by the quality of my writing. I started to fix chapters one by one, but I quickly lost motivation, and I figured nobody wanted to start a story that was half-fixed and nearly finished (This is a monster of a story as well, so if you're interested, better buckle up.) Sooooo I'm rewriting. Writing should be faster this way, since I already have most of the work done, and updates should be every few days at best and weekly at worst, after the first 9 chapters which i've finished and uploaded previously on FFN. The first few chapters might be a bit hokey... I promise the story does pick up. I'm also new to Ao3 so idk the formatting might be off or something. Please let me know what you think of this, and have a wonderful day!~ Mage)

**Chapter one:**

Lalna held the beaker carefully. This first step was the most crucial stage of this experiment.

_Lab Entry One Lalna_

_Today I started the initial stages of Project Beta. I spliced the DNA taken from my blood with that of a an Enderman. I am hoping to create an intelligent, docile Enderman that does not kill at a glance. It would yield unique insight into the mind of endermen and how they differ from humans. Anyway, it took several hours of careful modifying. In the end the operation was a success. The cells started to divide on their own. I started a hundred cultures, but only half made it to this stage. They mature at an exaggerated pace, so the specimen are already developing their physical forms. After verifying that everything was operating at maximum efficiency, I transported the specimens into prepared embryo capsules. At the current rate, the specimen will be full-grown within approximately a month. They will physically be adults when they come out of the embryo tank. I am confident that Beta will have a much higher rate of success then experiment Alpha did. I have logged in many research hours in the past two years._

_In unrelated news- Some sort of flying object fell out of the sky this afternoon. I did not see it,, but the radars picked it up. It fell about five miles north of the Lab. I will investigate tomorrow, it is far too late now, and I must sleep._

_Signing off….._

Upon waking the next morning, Lalna got up and had breakfast, and then was quickly off to work. He made a courtesy check-up on all of his on-going projects, but there wasn't much going on, because he dedicated most of his time to the Beta project. It had consumed most of his efforts for the past few years.

Finally it was time to check that final project. He walked down the hallway, and came to a reinforced iron door. A sign on the door simply read 'Project Beta'. An electric lock requested verification before the door could be opened. Project Alpha hadn't ended optimally, hence the security precautions.

Rows of human-sized capsules filled the room. A thumb sized mass floated in the middle of each, suspended in nutrient rich blue liquid. Each tank had dedicated machinery that measured various signs of life and kept the tanks at their optimal settings. Lalna began the long process of noting the status of each one, recording all the readings that the machines offered.

After this was done, he noted with disappointment that more than half of the embryos had stopped developing and had lost all life signs. It was to be expected, since genetically endermen and humans were quite different. Only two Alpha embryos had fully developed before, and one had died at 'birth'.

He left the room, locking it well behind him, and listened to the lab tape from the day before. The 'unrelated' part caught his ear. The lab didn't require any attention for the time being, and he should really see what the object had been for security purposes. The radars had given him the coordinates, about five miles north.

He grabbed a prototype jetpack he had been developing and set out. Fifteen minutes later, he was there.

The object had actually been some form of airship. It lay on the ground, crushed and smoking. Lalna landed a short distance away from the ship, carefully. He took a few cautious steps closer to the wreckage, worried about the clouds billowing out.

"Who're you?" A voice boomed out from behind him.

He turned, startled, but his voice held steady. "I'm Lalna. And you?"

The other man was dressed in some strange skin-tight bodysuit "My name is Xephos. Where am I?"

"About a three-month journey from any major town"

Xephos shook his head "No, no. I meant what planet am I on?"

Lalna's eyes widened slightly. "Uh…this is the planet Minecraftia."

He knew that space travel was possible, but had never been able to get even a satellite achieve orbit. It wasn't a very pressing concern considering the size of the planet. There were many corners of Minecraftia still unexplored.

Xephos frowned and began to mumble to himself. He walked distractedly past Lalna to his ship. He looked at a few melted wires, and a piece of charred metal that had been torn off. He sighed.

"It's hopeless! Just so much scrap metal now!" He angrily punched the smoking carcass. "OW!"

Lalna stood there, watching Xephos fume for a few moments. Though slightly fearful of the spaceman's erratic behaviour, he couldn't help asking, "How did you come to be here?"

Xephos sighed, "I live- well, lived- on a spaceship. All was well, but out of the blue a large fleet of enemies attacked us. We were losing badly, and the captain ordered us to evacuate. I was alone in the last pod. It malfunctioned somehow, and instead of going to the pre-destined coordinates, it took a random course. As I approached the planet, I lost control, and it crashed." His face fell.

"And now I'm stranded. I've met one other person here, and I'm lucky I did. His name is Honeydew, and he saved my life."

"Honeydew must be a local, but I don't know anyone around here by that name."

"Well, he's short.. Rather hairy. Drinks a lot of ale. Calls himself a dwarf."

Lalna nodded. "There is a small tribe around here.I don't see them much though. It's really rare to catch one above ground."

As though summoned, a stout figure appeared on the crest of a nearby hill and called out to them. Xephos waved back and the dwarf soon joined them.

He squinted up at Lalna "I've seen you before Goggles. How's the science stuff?" He smirked. "Or the mining?"

"Uh, it's fine." Lalna nodded at the dwarf politely.

He couldn't really say he recognized the fiery haired dwarf, considering he hardly ever saw the dwarves. Just as he had told Xephos, they all lived far below ground in vast, self-contained cities. He'd only been made aware of their presence when one of his mining tunnels hit theirs. That had been a near disaster. It was likely what Honeydew's snark had been referring to before.

Xephos filled the silence. "So I've met Honeydew, and now you. I understand that Honeydew lives with a tribe of dwarves, but besides them, are there other people around here?"

Lalna nodded "There are a few living in the woods. They worship the trees or something. They seem nice enough. But I can't claim to have any close contact with them. There is an island quite a ways away and a friend of mine Lomadia, lives there with her best friend Nilesy. I've seen a few others, around but I don't really know them. A week or so ago I met an entrepreneur of sorts, but he seemed a little nonsensical. He was just passing through. People come by every now and then on the trail that passes through the woods here. It's one of the more major trails across the continent, and it connects up to a lot of roads. Not many people quite this far west from civilization though. I tend to stay within my lab. There are small villages and towns scattered about, but nothing really noteworthy until you get to Mistral City, far east from here."

Xephos nodded. "Thank you. I need to see about traveling until I can gather the means to rejoin my people in space."

Honeydew spoke up. "Traveling is well and fine, but you need to make some plans. You're going to need a place to stay for the night." He turned to Lalna. "A Creeper nearly killed him last night. He didn't even know what it was! Unfortunately, my tribe does not allow outsiders, especially humans, into our cities." His beetle-black eyes glittered with amusement. "You saw how they reacted to you."

Lalna thought about this. Xephos needed a safe place to stay before nightfall, and he obviously didn't know anything about surviving on this planet. He _could_ invite Xephos to the lab. It seemed crazy to extend such an offer, yet he found himself doing so regardless.

"You two can come with me to my lab, I could use the company."

Gratefully, they both accepted.


	2. First Impressions

**Chapter Two**

_**Voice Journal Entry OneXephos** _

_-ing on….? What a dinosau- oh, there's the light, ok… I'm starting to keep a voice log on the old recorder that I found in the escape pod. Hopefully it will be of some use to my superiors upon my escape pod I was in crash-landed on a hospitable planet called 'Minecraftia'. It is inhabited by several species of hominid, so far as I have observed. I seemed to have landed far from any densely populated areas, according to some locals. One of them is a scientist named 'Lalna'. He has given me shelter, along with another of a different species, who identified himself as a dwarf. The Dwarf's name is Honeydew, and he has been very friendly. He talks about the strangest things that live on this planet. Or rather, don't live. He speaks of undead rising every night, and tall black hominoids that can teleport, and become hostile if you look at them. He also speaks of alter dimensions that hold even stranger and more powerful creatures. It's probably all that mead he drinks talking. He told me, quite proudly, that mead is like water to his race. Honeydew also talks of the great underground cities his kind inhabits. I have not spoken to Lalna as often, although he seems to be a very nice man. He is always in his laboratory, working on one of various projects. He has not told us much about them, but he's usually very busy._

_I need to find the galactic coordinates of this planet, so I can rejoin my crew at the rally point. This planet has the staple materials found throughout the galaxy, like iron, copper and such, and has many other materials I haven't before heard of. I must build a new ship to get back into space._

_End_

Xephos leaned back in the chair in the nice guestroom Lalna had prepared for him. Honeydew's was across the hall. The dwarf's faint snores came through the walls. Xephos recalled earlier during dinner. Honeydew had shown off by drinking four tankards of the extra-strong stuff his race brewed, then promptly passed out. When he woke up, he just shook it off, saying it was a bit stronger than he was used to. Then he asked for more.

Xephos was amazed at the sheer amount of alcohol he could consume. Perhaps it was another ability of his race. Xephos had already seen the rate at which he could dig. Mining seemed to be a large part of life on Minecraftia. Honeydew constantly talked of it, and even Lalna disappeared into his network of tunnels every now and then.

This place was a lot different than life on the ship, that's for sure. Xephos felt his eyes growing heavy, and he drifted off to sleep.

Across the hall, Honeydew was awakening from a deep sleep. Dwarfs were naturally nocturnal, so it wasn't unusual for him to sleep until dark. But that stuff at dinner _might_ have had something to do with it too. He reached for his tankard on the stand beside the bed and took a hearty gulp. He got up with a groan, and looked in the mirror above the desk. There weren't many mirrors underground, so it was a bit of a novelty to Honeydew. He puffed up his chest and stroked his ginger beard proudly.

There wasn't much to do, seeing as it was night, and both of the men were likely sleeping. Being alone wasn't a new thing to Honeydew. That wasn't to say he was constantly isolated; he enjoyed all the same things as the other dwarfs- drinking, flirting with the dwarven ladies, and mining. He just never really felt like he belonged there. He liked to see the sun, the moon and the stars, but the rest of his tribe never left the tunnels. There was a lot of superstition around life above the ground, and once his preferences came to light he found himself with significantly less company.

He left the mirror, and walked across the corridor to Xephos's room. The spaceman was leaned back in his chair, fast asleep, still wearing that ridiculous skintight suit. Honeydew noticed a little electronic gadget on the desk in front of Xephos. Honeydew had no idea what it was. He wanted to take the gizmo and see what it did, but he didn't want to be caught snooping. He felt drawn Xephos somehow, as though Fate had planned something for a simple dwarf and a fallen spaceman. It seemed ridiculous.

He shrugged, and walked down the hallway to where Lalna's room was.

He frowned when he arrived there. Goggles wasn't in his room. Honeydew had a weird feeling about Lalna. He wasn't scared of the scientist, although many other dwarfs mistrusted science. He _had_ heard strange things though. Rumor said that one night a few years ago something big had broken out of Lalna's lab. The entire incident was quite mysterious and notorious among the dwarven people. It mostly served as a warning to young dwarves to never venture aboveground, and fueled the older folk's worrying.

Honeydew wasn't sure if he bought it. Never knew if you could trust rumors.

Unknown to Honeydew, this rumor was in fact true. It was the 'Alpha' experiment. When the final Alpha specimens had hatched, something had gone wrong. The complications killed one, and sent the other into a fitful rage.

The Specimen attacked. The ensuing struggle damaged much of the lab. Lalna tried to destroy it, but was nearly killed. Eventually the Specimen seemed to open a portal, and vanished as suddenly as it had attacked. None knew of the true incident. They only speculated based on the flashes and sounds coming from the lab. So to Honeydew, and everyone else, it was only speculation.

He left the doorway of Lalna's room, and headed back to his own. He sat on his bed and hummed a tune to himself. Soon, he fell back asleep.

Lalna hadn't been in his room because he was checking on Project Beta. It was about a week into development, and some small features were becoming visible on the remaining specimen, much like on a human embryo. Lalna could see that all the specimen were male, as expected. He had been uncertain as to what effect the enderman DNA material might have on Beta's sex, since endermen were sexless.

Only 8 of the specimen remained viable however. Again, Laln was unfazed. Each of the specimen that stopped developing had genetic errors that wouldn't allow them to live anyway. It was a shame, for sure, but as long as at least one survived birth, the project would be a success. So far, indicators were good. Each instance of Beta had started to develop at different rates. Lalna hypothesized that the ones further along in their development had better chances at surviving to birth.

Three of them had actually started to show indications of brain activity. Everything was going fantastically, and there was no cause for doubt.

" _But everything was fine with Alpha until the very end."_ A small part of him said.

He shook his head. He had spent years on this, and researched everything as much as he possibly could. Every text that existed on the endermen, every paper done on the matter of genetic engineering. There was no way this would go the way Alpha had. He was young and stupid then, going into it blindly. He was prepared this time. Clearing his thoughts, his mind turned to other matters.

Xephos and Honeydew for instance. Lalna hadn't really had company since he left his parents house in Mistral City. That had been six long, happy years ago. The only person had had contact with here was his longtime friend Lomadia, and even that was only through letters and the occasional visit. He knew of the people who lived nearby of course, but he didn't really talk or deal with them.

It felt very odd to have company in the lab, but he was enjoying the new knowledge it brought him.

It had been a few days ago, when he first welcomed the others to the lab. Xephos had barely stepped through the door when he noticed a bit of machinery that separated different materials. He'd crouched by the circuitry.

"Is this Redstone?" he had asked.

"Yeah."

"Wow… my people haven't used Redstone for cen-" Lalna clearly remembered the strange look that had crossed Xephos's face. "I mean… I know a way to make this more efficient." He stepped back "The circuit can double back on itself if you separate the powder everywhere except the ends with a non-conductor. You can save a lot of space and redstone that way."

Needless to say, Lalna was impressed.

As for the dwarf, he was no more crude that the rest of his kind. He constantly hummed to himself, and his skill at that heavily depended on his level of intoxication. He wasn't like the other dwarves that Lalna had briefly met when his tunnel intercepted theirs. They had been rather rude and aggressive, and hated the idea of leaving the tunnels. However, Honeydew was friendly enough, and seemed to enjoy the outdoors, taking a walk nearly every sunset.

Lalna got to his room, but had no interest in sleeping more. He looked for a bare spot on the wall. When he had free time not occupied by sleep, he would usually paint, and as he let his hands flow over the blank canvas his mind would wander. He developed his strangest and most creative inventions that way.

Eventually he found a satisfactory spot, and painted until the sun began to rise.


	3. A Walk in the Woods

Chapter three

Xephos awoke the next morning, sore from his night in the chair.

He stretched, groaning softly as his stiff muscles loosened up. He accidentally knocked the voice recorder from the desk in front of him to the ground. He sighed as he picked it up. Keeping records for posterity seemed so dull. He would much rather take a walk and explore some of this new world. He figured the scientist might have some places of interest to visit.

After a moment of trying to make himself presentable, he set off down the hall to Lalna's room. It took a few minutes of wandering through the maze-like halls, but Xephos eventually found him intently scribbling notes on some sort of diagram plastered on a blackboard. Xephos noticed a few colorful blotches on the sleeves of Lalna's usually pristine lab coat.

Lalna was so focused on the papers pinned up in front of him that he didn't notice Xephos only a few feet behind him, standing at the doorway. The scientist stood slightly stooped and wavered on his feet, as though exhausted. Perhaps he hadn't slept.

Xephos took a small step into the room, and his perspective changed. Before his line of sight and the blackboard had blocked the walls, but now he could see everything.

An elaborate painting covered the majority of the room's walls. A mosaic of detailed machines and alien symbols crowded in at the edges of landscapes and portraits. Different patterns flowed together, all directing his eye to the one blank patch in the middle of the ceiling. While some places had obviously been painted over several times, the blank spot seemed untouched.

"Wow…" The spaceman whispered, jaw slightly agape. The scientist hadn't struck him as an artist.

Lalna turned around when he heard him.

Xephos tore his eyes from the patterns to look at Lalna. "This is amazing! I've nev-"

He was cut short when Lalna dismissed him with a careless wave of his hand. "It's nothing, just a hobby."

Xephos wanted to protest. It really was incredible, but he didn't want to needlessly anger his new friend.

"Right…" he paused awkwardly. The atmosphere in the room felt oddly tense. "Well, I'm just going to go on a walk, see the sights…" His voice dropped off again.

He was just about to leave the room when Lalna spoke.

"Take a weapon." He gestured to a cabinet in the hall. "And the dwarf. He knows the area."

Xephos nodded and grabbed a well-worn iron blade before heading back towards Honeydew's room. He was relieved to get away from Lalna. He tried to reason with himself, hoping the scientist was just grumpy from lack of sleep. Perhaps he was overstaying his welcome. Afterall, it had been a week.

"Good morning Honeydew" Xephos poked his head into the room. The dwarf was combing his beard. He seemed to have just gotten up.

"Ah, hello Xephos. What's up?"

"Well, I'm heading out for a walk, and was told to take you. You up for it?"

Honeydew's face lit up. "Sure! That sounds great." He grabbed his own sword "You know, we're going to have to see about getting you some armor. I don't think what you're wearing stands a chance against monsters."

"Monsters?"

Honeydew grinned and shook his head. "You've got a lot to learn, spaceman."

A small self-conscious smile quirked Xephos' lips. He'd never been so out of his element.

Honeydew made short work out of trading Xephos' Federation-standard uniform for soft leather breeches and a cotton tunic.

"I look like a local now" He joked.

"You still look pretty strange to me."

Xephos chuckled, hanging his head in mock-shame. After gathering a few more things they left the lab. They followed a path that weaved down the moderately steep hill towards the edge of the woods. Xephos looked back at the lab, a collection of squat grey buildings perched atop the hill. He wondered whether Lalna had gone to bed. He had certainly looked tired.

They walked for awhile, making good conversation. Xephos was enthralled by the stories that the dwarf had about his people. Honeydew gladly told him mythos after mythos, as well as the Lalna story. Apparently the miners that Lalna happened upon a few years before were so surprised to happen across an actual human being that they nearly sounded the alarm for a monster attack. Since then Lalna and the dwarves had settled into a grudging agreement of mutual ignoring.

"My uncle was the leader of the mining party, said that Goggles screamed like a baby when he fell through into their tunnel."

"Really?"

"Aye. Also, Take a look around, Xephos"

"How…" he started, gazing up in wonder. While he was so absorbed in the stories that Honeydew told, the landscape had transformed around them. The trees stretched higher than Xephos thought possible. Even craning his neck, the highest branches were barely within sight. There hadn't been any of these 13massive trees visible at a distance; the forest had all seemed roughly the same height. But the path had actually been leading them further down the hill. The gentle slope had hardly been noticeable, but it ultimately gave these trees great size.

Honeydew shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's definitely not normal. I've never seen another forest like this, but then, I've never wandered very far."

"It must be something in the soil."

"I'm not Lalna. I don't know a thing about science. Rocks now… that's a different story."

"I think I've heard plenty about rocks for one day." Xephos chuckled. As soon as his laugh fell silent, another piped up some distance away, off the beaten trail. He abruptly shut his mouth.

Honeydew drew his short sword from his belt and silently crept towards the sound. He made surprisingly little noise compared to the rukus he'd caused before. Xephos followed him off of the path and into the undergrowth. He regretted not asking for a weapon.

Shortly they approached the edge of a moderately sized clearing which was the obvious origin of the sound. A wooden house stood in the center of the clearing, and two men faced away from them, sitting near a smouldering fire pit.

Honeydew crept closer, hiding himself behind one of the mammoth trunks. After a moment of hesitation, Xephos followed suit. The tree was easily wide enough to cover them.

One of the men was blonde, and the other had brown hair. They sat pretty closely together. Xephos couldn't quite make out what they were saying. The blonde abruptly jostled the brown haired one, who fell back off the log. His shout of surprise and the blonde's laughter sent birds flying through the trees.

The blonde went to help his friend up, but something seemed to catch his attention and he dropped the brunette back to the ground. Again, a loud cry of displeasure.

The blonde ignored his friend, and swung his bow from his back, nocking an arrow and raising it in one fluid motion. He walked towards where Honeydew and Xephos hid.

"Who's there?" The blonde demanded. "Show yourselves, and don't make any sudden movements!"

Honeydew shared a glance with Xephos and sheathed his sword, motioning that Xephos follow him.

"Just let me do the talking" The dwarf whispered. He made a strange movement with his hands, and moved away from the cover of the tree. Xephos cautiously did the same.

Honeydew calmly held his hands out, showing they were empty

"Hello."

The brown haired one had quickly gotten up and now stood next to the blonde. Xephos could now see that they were both barely more than teens.

"Who're you?" The brunette asked.

"I'm Honeydew." The dwarf replied. "And this is Xephos"

The blonde lowered his bow slightly.

"Martyn." He tilted his head to his companion."And Toby." He stared at Honeydew for a moment, and completely lowered his bow.

"I just worried you were someone else." He explained. "Some guy was creeping around here a few weeks ago looking to cut down the trees to build some sort of processing plant… not sure why he'd want to build this far from anywhere. He wasn't too hard to chase off though. I won't shoot you, don't worry."

"I appreciate that." Honeydew grinned.

"Why don't you join us for a bit?" Toby asked.

"Yeah, what're you doing this far into the woods?" Martyn half-turned and gestured towards the fire pit. "Lunch is about ready, stay and chat for awhile."

"Sure, why not?" Honeydew replied. Xephos was left to follow him towards the fire pit, where they sat across from Martyn and Toby. Xephos felt a bit lost. The tension had diffused so quickly.

"So, how did you wind up in the middle of the woods anyway? I know of the dwarves, though I've never seen one aboveground. I've never seen you before, Xephos. Are you a traveler, passing through?"

Xephos gave a thin smile. "In a sense."

"Well, where are you from?"

"That's going to take quite the explantation."

Martyn stopped tending to the fire for a moment and pointed at the sun, not yet at the precipice of noon. "Well, we have nothing but time."

Honeydew quickly told them his version of the past few days, and Xephos described what he could remember of the crash.

"I must have been thrown from the wreckage somehow, and Honeydew happened upon me when he came to investigate the smoke from my escape pod. He saved my life by protecting me from the native lifeforms that night."

"A creeper." Honeydew explained.

Martyn and Toby wore identical wide-eyed expressions.

"We saw some smoke too, but it was too far off to bother about. The smoke cloud didn't grow big enough to make us concerned for the forest." Toby told them. "We figured it was just a traveller's cooking fire grown a bit out of control."

"What's with all these trees anyway? I've never seen anything like this." Xephos asked

Toby shared a look with Martyn.

It was Martyn who spoke. "That, my friend, is a long story."

"Well, as you said, we've got nothing but time"

Martyn laughed. "I suppose I did." He thought for a moment. "I'm not really sure where to start."

"Just start at the beginning. They don't know anything." Toby suggested.

"Right... Well a long time ago, before the grandparents of these trees had taken root, a community began to form in a land far from here. The people saw great fields and plentiful forests, and so decided to settle there and live out their simple existences as farmers and lumbermen. Over time, the small town swelled as new people came to live there, and within a few generations it was the largest city for hundreds of miles. The people all got along in relative harmony for nearly a century. But something strange began to be apparent. Some of the direct descendants of the original group of settlers were growing different from the others. They spent more time in the woods, and their fields always bore more crops than those with different bloodlines. These people, over time, moved to life closer to the edge of town, and cut themselves off, forming their own sub-community. Rumours began to circle about these people, labeling them cultists and such. Everything was uneasy but fine, until a boy from the 'cultists' killed a normal town boy in what started as a simple scuffle. Witnesses said that the roots of an unusually large tree seemed to wrap around the boy and squeezed him to death. This caused the tensions between the two groups to explode. The other boy was killed in revenge. The 'cultists' were heavily outnumbered by the rest of the town, and were forced away from society. The outsiders traveled for a few weeks, until they reached a part of forest totally untouched by humans. They built a new life there, in harmony with the forest, and renounced the violence that drove them away in the first place. Decades passed, but the group never grew to be more than the forest would sustainably support. They lived out their lives as caretakers of the forest, over generations growing stronger and more different than the ordinary townsfolk they had left behind."

"Are you ever going to actually explain the trees?" Toby interrupted.

Martyn shot him a look "Of course. Anyway, the trees of the forest began to grow far, far larger than they should have, as a result of the guardian's power. It took a long time to be noticeable, but the process got faster the more powerful the people got and the longer they lived in the area. It became apparent that the land itself was magical."

Both he and Toby made some sort of symbol across their chests.

Martyn continued in a solemn tone. "These people came to be much different than the people they had first come from. Traditions formed, and a completely new way of life came to be. Once a child of this settlement reaches a certain age, they develop a deep bond with a single great tree of the forest. When the bond is made, the child becomes a keeper of the forest. This usually happens around fourteen or fifteen years of age, and the child is then considered an honorary adult. They can sit in at council meetings, and they begin to receive lessons from the older keepers. The tree in question becomes the keeper's main responsibility. The keeper gains greater power and insight, and the tree grows stronger, and gains a sort of human awareness, though much different. When an elderly keeper passes on, they're not truly gone. Their spirit joins the tree, to live eternally, and give wisdom to future generations. The highest crime possible is to kill a tree. The spirit would pass into the greater awareness of the forest, and be lost. A still living keeper is left directionless if their bonded tree gets killed."

Xephos noticed that Martyn had switched into present tense. "Do these people still exist?" Looking about at the massive trees around, he supposed so.

"Well, their distant descendants do. In time, their great power faded a bit. Some say that it was only legend to begin with. Now, they cannot bid plants to grow at will, or anything like that. The forest just responds to their presence. Keepers and trees still bond though, and there is a great awareness stretching through the whole forest."

"Aren't you two these people? You're speaking as though you aren't."

Martyn's face fell slightly. "The Homeforest is far from here. If no tree bonds with a child by the time they're seventeen years old, the child is sent away to find their place. Any tree in any forest has potential to be the right one, so they might travel years with no luck. It's extremely unusual for a keeper to not find a tree in their Homeforest, though not unheard of."

"Six times in recorded history." Toby murmured.

Martyn didn't pause. "Toby and I didn't find a tree in our home forest. It's the first time there were ever two treeless keepers at the same time. We decided to leave together, though Toby wasn't quite seventeen. We've always been friends, since he was a newborn and I a small child, so we were glad that we didn't have to part ways forever. We traveled for several months, and found our trees together here. The forest was normal then, but our presence has bolstered their growth, much like how our ancestors started the First Homeforest long ago."

He seemed done talking, and everything fell silent for a moment.

"Martyn! You didn't tell them about the One. That's my favorite part!" Toby seemed put out.

Martyn sighed good-naturedly. "If you insist. The trees told our ancestors that the One was a powerful spirit who'd appear when things were at their worst. They'd be under the guise of an ordinary keeper until he was needed. The One would serve as a sort of champion of the forest, stronger than any other keeper. The One would be innately bonded to all trees, and could bid the energy of the forest to do anything."

Toby's eyes never left Martyn's face. To Xephos it seemed like this was a ritual of theirs, like a bedtime stories. Though they were a bit old for those.

"He is said to have shown himself once before, when our ancestors were attacked by a human army from the city they'd long left behind. In my ancestors' absence, their legacy had warped, painting them as dangerous dark magic users. The city had grown to be immense and powerful. Once the right person came to power, it was easy to stir the people into action. According to legend, this army marched for weeks, and upon arriving at the forest burnt and chopped down some of the oldest trees. It was a huge blow to our society. We lost some of our wisest spirits. The One revealed themself then, and drew forth an incredible magic from the forest. Trees animated and crushed attacking soldiers, and fires started that destroyed their supplies. Even the animals and weather conspired against the intruders. As they fled, the One kept up his attack, his influence reaching far past the forest my people lived in. The One chased them all the way to the gates of their city. They begged for forgiveness, and the One left them alone so long as they promised to never again bother the keepers. There's been peace ever since. The One vanished, but legend says that should the need ever arise, they'll reincarnate. It's a load of bull if you ask me. No proof whatsoever. Just a story for elders to tell children. Everyone wants to think they're the One, that they might have that great power, hidden until they need it.."

Toby playfully threw a clod of dirt at Martyn's head. The blonde dodged it easily and smirked at his younger friend.

"You've ruined it!" Toby accused, not really angry. "Of course he's real. He will return one day."

He blushed slightly under the questioning stares he got from the visitors. "I've, uh… read a lot on the subject. Like every record our tribe had. There's no 'solid' proof, I suppose. But there are so many eyewitness accounts, it has to be more than exaggeration." He'd slipped into a very earnest tone of voice.

Martyn chuckled. "All you do is read, and write."

Honeydew huffed in admiration. "I can't read." He said. "Writing isn't a common skill among the dwarves."

Xephos was surprised, but didn't comment.

The four made effortless conversation for quite some time. They got along a lot better than their initial meeting would've suggested. Eventually though, Toby noted the sky was starting to dim.

"As you know now Xephos, the night can be quite dangerous. You two'd best get going."

Honeydew nodded his agreement and quickly got up. He and Xephos made their goodbyes and promises to visit if they were in the area again. Within ten minutes, they were walking back the way they had come.

They safely reached the lab before nightfall.


	4. Parting Ways

**Chapter 4**

Shortly after Xephos and Honeydew left for their walk, Lalna had gone to bed. He tossed and turned as he slept, dreaming. It wasn't restful sleep by any means.

"Lalna, why can't you see sense?" His mother demanded. "Forget this art rubbish. Drawings won't pay the bills! Your father and I have worked extremely hard to get you accepted into the Skylord academy and you aren't going to throw this away!"

Lalna's mother had found art supplies that Lalna had bought with some of the money he was meant to be saving for textbooks. He had returned from a day out to catch her in his room, gathering his sketchbooks and charcoal pencils into a bag. His small mechanical models and chemistry sets were missing from their shelves, and he suspected their fates were the same. Lalna knew he wouldn't see any of them again.

He glared at her reproachfully, angry tears burning behind his eyes. The only person that had respected his love for art was his friend Lomadia, but she and her family had moved away last summer. Now he had no one to hide behind, so had to deal with the anger and disappointment of his family on his own. They had such high expectations of him, and it was like his life was decided for him before he was born. His family wanted higher social status, so he was to become a Skylord. If he did well beyond the academy he could potentially be made honorary nobility. It was practically unheard of for someone from relatively humble means like him to make it through the academy. The days of Skylord glory were over. No longer did they bridge the gap between communities of people or pioneer exciting new research. Everyone knew that Skylords now were just the children of well-to-do families. Lalna's mother had grown up in a rich family, who'd lost everything in a couple bad investments. She wanted nothing better then to get back to the level of wealth and status she had enjoyed while younger. Lalna often felt that she only saw him as her ticket to the life she wanted.

Lalna's mother stopped yelling when she realized he was blocking out the angry roar of her voice and glared at him. "Why can't you appreciate what we're giving to you?" she hissed, as she slammed the door to Lalna's bedroom behind her.

Lalna bowed his head, staring at his shaking hands. After a moment, he jumped up and threw his mattress off of his bed. A sketchbook his mother had missed lay on the center of the bed frame. He seized it, and roughly pulled open his nightstand drawer. He grabbed a pencil , slammed it shut, and half-fell onto the floor.

He couldn't stay here any longer to be something he'd hated his whole life. He began scribbling a note onto a blank page of the book.

He was leaving.

Lalna woke up. He hated that dream. He'd had it so many times he could recite his mother's words from memory. Though he'd always been aware that he wasn't really wanted, that was the final straw that actually threw him over the edge and made him leave. A month after that incident, he turned twenty, the age of adulthood. He left in the middle of the night, leaving the note from the sketchbook. He hadn't told anyone where he was going. Sometimes he wondered if anyone even missed him

Lalna sighed, taking a moment to put the dream out of his mind. His watch beeped, letting him know that the front door sensors had registered movement. As if on cue, he heard an echo of the spaceman's booming laugh, and the faint sound of the door slamming shut. They must have just returned from their day out.

Lalna headed towards the room that his guests were using, detouring to quickly check on Beta. He didn't go inside, just made sure that the door was still fully locked and that the whirr of the machines hadn't stopped. Everything was fine, and he soon approached the sound of Xephos and Honeydew speaking.

"This really is such an amazing place. I almost don't want to leave right away." Xephos said.

"It's probably a lot different than your life on the… what was it again?"

"The Starship Enterprise" supplied Xephos. He paused a moment. "I don't even know if I'll be able to rebuild my pod to get me back to my crew. Those pods aren't meant to land on planets, let alone break out of a planetary atmosphere. Gravity here is stronger than 1.5G..."

He kept rambling on about gravity and atmospheric densities, and Lalna deemed it a perfect time to make his presence known.

"Hey guys," he greeted, poking his head through the door. "Did you have a nice walk?"

"Yeah. Met those woods-people you mentioned. Their names are Martyn and Toby." Xephos answered.

"Those names sound sorta familiar. I met them once when I first moved into the area."

"Well, they're pretty nice guys, once they stop trying to shoot you."

"What do you mean? They were perfectly friendly when I met them."

"Just mistaken identity, I think. They're pretty serious about keeping those trees safe. They calmed down when they realized we weren't gunna try anything."

"Well that's good."

Xephos's voice grew serious. "Lalna, I'm thinking about leaving. I've been taking up space for a week now, and while I thank you for your hospitality, there is a lot out there that I'd like to see before working out a way to return to space. In the vastness of space I think I'd forgotten how to appreciate the little things."

Honeydew looked up. "I'd hardly call the entire planet 'little'. Now… are you leaving so soon?"

A hint of worry had crept into his voice, and he fiddled with a bit of stone. He looked down at his hands. He could feel the other's questioning gazes, and his face reddened to match his beard. He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders.

"I just mean to say, well… ask, if I can go with you. There's nothing left for me in the mines. I'm meant to follow you. I can feel it." He met Xephos' gaze steadily.

For a moment there was no reaction, then a wide smile broke out over Xephos' face. "That's great! I definitely wouldn't want to go alone."

Plans were made for the two to leave in a week. That would allow time for them to gather what supplies they would need from Lalna's stores, and give Xephos a few extra days to acclimate to the planet. They'd be traveling by foot and carrying their things. Though the slow walk in the woods had been easy enough, Xephos wasn't quite ready to do any serious exercise under the burden of the increased gravity of the planet.

As the last few days went by, Lalna realized how isolated he normally was in the lab. He regretted losing the company, but he knew that they couldn't stay forever. It would be better to have them leave before Beta was complete anyway. If there was even the slightest chance that something could go wrong, he didn't want them anywhere near.

The last night, the three dined together. They'd come to be pretty close. Each of them dreaded the morning in some small way, though Xephos' and Honeydew's misgivings were outshined by their excitement to begin their own small adventure.

Lalna focused on the fact that he'd be able to dedicate all of his time now to Beta. Another three of the specimen had died, and he was anxious that he might be doing something wrong. One way or another, more time would lend him more insight.

The next morning, none of them were totally dry-eyed. Honeydew loudly proclaimed that it was the loss of a steady stream of dwarven ale that upset him. Xephos promised they could settle somewhere and set up a small distillery before adventuring, and the dwarf was pleased.

They set out in the late morning, leaving the lab behind. As soon as they were out of sight, Lalna retreated inside.

There was work to be done.


	5. A Few Introductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a wonderful day!

**Chapter 5**

Early morning sun streamed through the windows of the small log cabin that Martyn and Toby shared. The light woke Martyn, and though he tried to roll over and sleep a bit longer, he soon gave it up as a lost cause. He decided to get up and get ready for the day.

Getting out of the cramped cabin without waking Toby always proved to be a challenge, since he was an extraordinarily light sleeper. Toby could be ferocious if woken up early, so Martyn was always very careful. The floorboards creaked as Martyn took a few steps to the back wall, and he held his breath as Toby stirred. When Toby's breaths evened again, Martyn began to pull things from his dresser.

Working quickly, Martyn changed into his clothes and put on shoes. He grabbed a flint from his top drawer and stuffed it in his pocket. His bow was a bit noisier, since he had to reach above his head and lower it from its storage rack. Once he slung the bow over his shoulder, he turned back towards the front of the cabin. The head of Toby's bed was to the left of the doorway. Martyn opened the door as quietly as he could, and left it hanging open as he left.

A breeze met him as he walked outside. The leafs around the edge of the clearing fluttered, as though in greeting. His pale face tilted up towards the sun that filtered down through the highest reaches of the canopy. For a moment he let himself simply enjoy the fresh air, but he knew that the fire needed to be started and breakfast put on.

Embers from the previous night's fire still glowed under a blanket of ash. It was rare for the fire to totally burn out, even when it seemed there wasn't enough fuel to sustain it. Martyn was glad for it, since his job would be easier now. He broke up some twigs and tore a piece of papery bark into strips. He scattered the ashes away and isolated a few of the glowing red coals. Slowly he brought the fire to life, first with the shredded bark, then by feeding twigs into the growing flame. A helpful breeze fanned the fire for him, and before long it crackled merrily upon a few solid logs and branches.

He set a pot of leftover stew to warm for breakfast, and sat on a log near the firepit. The flames moved with a hypnotizing rhythm, and he gazed into them for several long minutes. He eventually grew bored though, and decided to get up and practice his archery. He took his bow off of his back and quickly strung it.

A canvas covered hay bale painted with a bulls-eye leant against a tree at the edge of the clearing. Martyn stood perpendicular to it, and quickly nocked an arrow to the string. He lifted the bow and closed one eye, relishing the sensation of his back muscles pulling back the string. He held the string steady near his jaw for a moment, then let his fingers relax. He held his position until the arrow hit the hay bale, not quite in the bullseye.

He shot several more arrows, hitting the bullseye twice. When he was satisfied, he put down his bow and went to recover his arrows. He had only walked halfway to the haybale when he was startled by the sound of a branch snapping.

He whipped around, wishing he still held his bow. It wasn't unheard of for the nighttime monsters to occasionally attack in the day, or it could be that guy who wanted to cut down the trees again.

It wasn't either of those things. Instead at the edge of the clearing stood a tall young woman. The blush in her cheeks rivaled the bright pink of her hair. She took a short step towards Martyn, obviously nervous.

"Uh… hello, I'm Martyn." He kept his voice friendly, but he was burning with curiosity. She didn't look like a typical traveler.

"I'm Kaeyi." She sank in on herself slightly.

Martyn noticed she was shaking. "Are you cold?" He asked, beginning to close the distance between them.

She shook her head. "I'm just… I wasn't sure I'd live to see tomorrow. And then I find this cabin. It doesn't feel real."

"It's real enough, I promise. Why don't you come sit by the fire, and eat a bit." He stood right in front of her now, and he pointed back at the firepit as he spoke.

After a brief moment of hesitation, she followed him and settled onto one of the logs. Martyn ladled her a bowl of the stew that had been heating, and she accepted it gratefully. He gave her a few minutes to eat, tending the fire and trying not to stare at her brilliant hair.

"So Kaeyi, how did you come to be in these woods anyway? I've never seen you before."

She looked troubled for a moment, but her features quickly smoothed into a smile

"Just traveling.. Well, exploring with no real destination. Most of my stuff got washed downstream when I fell into a river. I nearly drowned. Without my food and shelter, well, things have been tough."

Martyn winced. "Glad you found us then."

"Us?"

"Oh, my friend Toby is snoring in that cabin there. He'll stumble out 'round noon or so."

Kaeyi laughed. "I look forward to meeting him."

After the ice was broken, they kept up a pleasant conversation, talking about their childhoods, and what their favourite pastimes were. Martyn showed off a bit with his bow.

A few hours later Toby finally rose and blearily wandered out to the firepit. It took him a full minute to notice the newcomer

"Uhhh… Martyn?"

"This is Kaeyi." He shared a glance with her. "She's probably going to be staying for a bit."

Ten or so miles to the east, a certain tree-chopping, eccentric businessman was very busy pacing. Sips had visions of grandeur playing through his head. His little lean-to wasn't much to look at, but he could see how buildings could spring up around it, growing into an empire; his own dirt processing empire.

Green sunlight filtered down through the treetops, and he reminded himself that clear cutting the area was of utmost importance. He needed unobstructed light to sunbathe in. Then after that he'd have to return to the really tall forest that he'd been chased from, in order to secure some of the land. Any place with plant life like that must have some truly quality soil.

He was thinking of ways to trick those rude locals when he was rudely interrupted by a something barreling directly in front of him. He couldn't get a good look at first, and when he could, he wished he couldn't.

It was a near-naked man, trembling and panting, clad only in a loincloth. Scrapes and scratches ran along his dirty skin. The man stopped and looked at Sips, faint awareness starting to flicker in his eyes.

Sips backed away. "Oh...Oh God. What the _hell_ happened to you?"

The stranger twitched anxiously and muttered some gibberish about a village and too many drinks.

"I'll say." Sips shook his head. He shrugged off his knapsack, and started to rummage inside. The man watched him cautiously, twitching less. Sips pulled out a pair of patched leather trousers, and thrust them at the stranger. "For God's sake, put these on."

The stranger mutely followed Sip's orders. He seemed to be coming to his senses a bit.

"Food?" He asked in a cracked rasp. Sips dug in the pack again, and gave a squished sandwich to the stranger. He made a mental tally of what he was owed while the man dug into the meal like a starving animal. The food was gone within seconds.

"Shiiit… Hungry, weren't you?"

The man nodded.

"Well, what's your name?"

The stranger's brow furrowed, and a few minutes passed.

"Sjin" he said finally.

"And how did this happen?" Sips asked, gesturing towards Sjin's sorry state.

"I was temporarily living in a decently sized town. I'm a… What you might call a freelancing engineer or architect or handiman. It was just looking like I might be able to establish myself and settle down, but everything fell through. I stopped by the pub to drown my woes. I had a few shots of that new dwarf whiskey, and… well, that's when it gets foggy. The barkeeper threw me out, I know that. I don't know what's up with Dwarf brewed stuff, but I was seeing things, and hearing things… Instead of going to my apartment, I ran into the woods. I don't know why, and I'm not sure how long ago that was. I guess I went a little crazy."

Sips nodded as he looked over Sjin. He'd likely been running about for days, at least. He'd heard stories of the dwarven stuff causing episodes like this in some people. He'd actually tried it once, and woke up in a gutter a few days later with no memory. It wasn't exactly light stuff.

"Do you remember the name of the town?"

Sjin scoffed. "Hardly. I travel and live job by job. Towns start to look the same."

"You said you were an architect?"

"More a jack-of-all-trades, really."

"Great!" Sips enthused. "I need help building some stuff, so you could come and work for me." His grin was more scary than reassuring; he exposed far too many teeth

"It's not like there's anything for me to go back to…" Sjin sounded uncertain.

"Well follow me then!" Sips shouted over his shoulder, heading back to the lean-to. A moment passed, and Sjin seemed to come to a decision, hurrying after him.

Sips couldn't believe his luck. Labour rarely came so cheap!


	6. Project Second Chance

**Chapter 6**

Two weeks passed in a blur of activity for Lalna. After Xephos and Honeydew had gone, he'd thrown himself headfirst into his work again. There were several projects he was intent on, but obviously Beta took precedence. Only one specimen remained. Lalna had felt more troubled with the passing of each failed 'embryo'. In the beginning, the death of a cluster of cells hadn't been too emotionally trying, but the most recent had looked like a ten year old child. When its brain stopped showing activity and the heart stopped beating, Lalna felt a sense of personal loss. He chided himself of course, and tried harder to remain scientific, but it was challenging.

Lalna conducted his routine daily check up on the final specimen. Upon the death of the other, Lalna had conducted a procedure to manually keep the heart beating via regular electrical impulses. It was intended as a safeguard in case the specimen's heart went into distress. There was nothing Lalna could do if there was a fundamental flaw in the specimen's brain, but luckily that seemed more unlikely everyday. If something was going to impact its chances of survival, it would have become apparent already. Lalna estimated the specimen would come to term in about a week.

After recording the statistics, he turned on his tape recorder to better document other findings and procedures done over the course of the day.

_Beta log, week three, day five….._

_The specimen has developed to a physical appearance of around 15 years of age. It shows remarkably little of its enderman heritage, besides height and slightly elongated limbs. Readings say that the specimen is 5'10', and will likely gain more height in the next week. A contributor to this height could be a lack of stress on the spine within the development tank._

_Earlier today I started electrical impulses that will develop muscle on the specimen. The accelerated development has lead to a lack of voluntary muscle mass. As previously recorded, I've also implemented a similar measure to prevent heart failure._

_The specimen's mental readings have been healthy, and it shows regular cycles of rest and activity. One point of interest I'd like to investigate further is a spike of unusually agitated activity followed immediately with a sudden drop off of nearly any signs of life. After several minutes, normal brain activity returns. This occurs about every twelve hours, sometimes closer to ten, or fourteen. The cause for this is unknown, and perhaps contributed to the deaths of the other specimen. This specimen seems to be more resilient towards the shock this process must put on its system._

_I have also contrived a way to transfer manufactured memories directly to the specimen's brain. It involves stimulating the brain in a certain way to emulate the electrical patterns seen while remembering an event. This transfer has worked to teach mice to do certain tasks and understand meanings behind certain stimuli. Of course, a mouse's brain can't understand complicated concepts such as speech, but I hope to 'teach' the specimen to a least understand language. In addition I'm going to transfer memories of basic experiences to help the specimen adjust to the world as essentially an adult._

_Beta Log Week 3 Day 5 End._

After stowing away the tape recorder, Lalna headed towards his library room to write a letter to Xephos and Honeydew. They had 'met' his friend Lomadia when one of her messenger owls had been blown wayward by a storm practically to their front door, and started to keep up a correspondence. She let them use her owls to write to him now. From what Lalna could tell from their letters, they were settling in nicely. Xephos was teaching Honeydew to read and write, which was obvious from the short, rough messages the dwarf would send. Writing his letter in response took less than an hour. He put it into an envelope, and stored it into a drawer. He wasn't sure when the next owl would show up, but when it did he'd have it take the letter.

Lalna's mind started to wander, and he again began to worry about Beta. He was anxious both about the specimen's chances of surviving, and as always, about how Alpha had gone wrong. To calm himself, he walked around the lab for another hour or so, tinkering with a few of his on-going projects. One of his favourites was the jetpack he was developing. He was working on making a second model with lighter material to increase its fuel efficiency. It couldn't distract him from his worries for long though, and he moved on to another pet project of his.

Next to a simple wooden door, a sign declared the room ahead as 'Project Second Chance'. While Beta was flashy and unique, Second Chance had the potential to make a much greater difference in the world.

Upon opening the door, the familiar sight of the room put him at ease in a way his other projects hadn't been able to. A computer hummed on a desk to the left of the doorway, and a huge blank screen took up the entire wall opposite the door. Wires connected the computer to a large rumbling machine on the left wall. Against the right wall stood a table with a tank of mice and a plain black box. A canister of CO2 and an unconnected hose sat under the table.

Lalna disregarded the cage for now and sat down at the computer. He flipped through the notes he'd taken before, and opened a program console on the computer. He lost himself for several hours going over thousands of lines of code. Occasionally he'd frown and fix a few lines, or completely replace a section, saving often. Besides the purring of the machines and the sound of typing, everything was quiet.

Lalna was eventually satisfied with the changes he'd made. He saved the program a final time and ran it. A few seconds passed, then the machine on the left wall grew louder. Lalna got up and turned on the large screen on the back wall, then started to prepare things over by the cage of mice. After a minute the machine spit out a series of tiny microchips into a dish. The one was slightly larger, and sat in the dish while all the smaller ones took to the air. They were barely the size of gnats, hardly noticeable.

Lalna stopped the program, then loaded the stationary chip into a sterile syringe and placed it down gently on a steel tray next to the tank of mice. He carefully prepared a second syringe of a sedative and put it down next to the first.

He opened the cage of mice and selected one. It tried to escape his grip, gentle as it was, but Lalna held fast. He quickly injected the sedative in its abdomen to keep it calm. It settled nearly immediately into a sleepy state. Then he injected the microchip between the mouse's shoulder blades. After a few moments, the mouse's vitals appeared on the display screen. Its heart rate and respiration was slowed from the sedative, but the mouse was otherwise in perfect health.

Lalna opened the black box and put the still mouse onto the floor of it. He replaced the lid, making sure the seal was tight. He took the hose from under the table and connected it to the canister and the box. After making sure the seal between the hose and the box was tight, he started to replace the oxygen in the box with CO2.

On the monitor, the mouse's breathing slowed further, and eventually stopped. Lalna waited five minutes to ensure the mouse was dead before he opened the box again. It was time to see if his edits had worked. Upon registering that the mouse was dead, the microchip Lalna had injected should execute its program.

For a long moment, the body just lay in the bottom of the box, and Lalna feared that he'd failed again. But remarkably, the mouse's icon on the display screen started to flash. The microchips that hovered about the room like tiny bugs began to cluster around the body. The body started to fade away.

Lalna held his breath. This was the furthest the code had ever worked before.

After a moment the microchips began to move as one, like a tiny cloud. They carried the larger one up and out of the box, then down through the ventilation holes in the lid of the mouse tank. They stopped within a plastic shelter; the last place the mouse had slept. A new shape began to form there, invisibly pulling the molecules it needed from the environment. Then the cloud of microchips dispersed again to fly about the room. There stood a confused, and very much alive mouse.

Lalna couldn't control his excitement. He rushed to his computer and added a short command to the code that he'd worked out weeks before. Upon running the program again, the machine began to produce the microchips again. However, instead of the larger chip just sitting in the dish, it took to the air like the smaller ones. It only flew for a moment though, soon diving into the back of Lalna's neck. He felt a sharp pinch and a brief tingling in his fingers and toes that quickly subsided. His vitals popped up on the display screen alongside the mouse's.

It took a moment for him to actually process that the code had finally worked. The implications were astounding. Theoretically now, he couldn't actually die. He lept up to record his findings, and in doing so forgot to stop the program before he left the room. As he recorded his triumphant breakthrough, thousands of chips were streaming from the machine and making their way outside in seek of human-like life.

Deep in the woods, Martyn sat beneath his bonded-tree, leaning against the trunk. Kaeyi sat near him, while Toby sat in a hollow of the gnarled roots. Over the past week, Martyn and Toby had been teaching Kaeyi about the culture of the Keepers, and she was enthralled by it. She'd adjusted quickly to their lifestyle.

At the moment, Martyn was retelling a few old legends that he'd first heard as a child from the elders of his village. One of the stories involved a young keeper who was saved a by a heroic traveler from a pack of wolves summoned by a dark mage. The lost traveler joined the Keepers, and ultimately became a mighty hunter who protected the forest from great beasts that no longer existed.

"Can that actually happen though?" Kaeyi interrupted. "Like, can someone who's not a Keeper become one, and bond with a tree and everything?"

Toby thought for a moment. "Yes, but it's very rare. Many people don't have the… right spirit in them. And even of those who do, it can be hard to find a tree that will adopt them. Trees are old, powerful beings. They must be very confident in who they bond with. And of course, the person's spirit must agree."

"I- Well I wouldn't mind possibly… joining you… If that would be ok. And if I could actually join you as a Keeper, that would be all the better." She blushed and looked away.

"That would be awesome!" Toby exclaimed, jumping up. "There are so few records of something like that happening!"

"And we'd love to have you stay here, beyond just the bonding, should you find your tree here." Martyn said, and he smiled widely. Suddenly he slapped the back of his neck, "Ow!"

"What's wr- ahh!" Kaeyi responded.

"Stinging bugs must be out, let's go!" Toby started to rush off back to the clearing. As he went he felt something sting him as well, a sharp pain on his neck and oddly, a strange numb feeling that passed quickly. He wrote it off as nothing, and the incident was mostly forgotten by all three of them within an hour.

Several miles away lay a small grassland, marked by rolling hills and surrounded on all sides by a normal forest. A well-used trail weaved its way through the hills, coming close to the squat, comfortable cabin that Honeydew and Xephos now called home. They were heading out to their mine when the chips found them.

"Ouch!"

Honeydew turned his eyes to the sky. "Looks like biting flies or something, you see 'em? We should get underground. They won't bother us there."

"Alright."

After two hours of mining Xephos decided to head back above ground to work on the garden they'd started and to collect some firewood, but Honeydew remained underground for a bit longer. Before long though, the hungry rumbles of his stomach began to be too much to ignore, and he prepared to leave the mine. He was crouched by his bag securing his pick to the outside when the telltale hiss of an angry creeper surprised him.

He reacted quickly, turning around in a microsecond, but it was too late. The creeper already glowed with the strange power that preceded the explosion. Honeydew instinctively covered his face and yelled out in terror as the creeper detonated. A large crater marked where it had stood. The dwarf slammed bodily into the stone wall, and slumped to the ground. A final breath whistled between his lips, and his eyes went blank.

Sjin didn't understand why someone was buying an order of dirt from Sips. Dirt was everywhere! But Sips insisted that this dirt was special, and so had commanded Sjin to manually dig up all the dirt required with a nearly broken shovel. The buildings Sjin was meant to build required special materials from a nearby village. Until they could be aquired, Sjin was stuck doing the tough manual labour. He couldn't complain too much; it was still a job, and it was better than clinging deliriously to life in the woods. He just wished that Sips would give him a break from the sun every once in awhile.

As it was, he was too sore everywhere to notice the pinch when the chip plunged into his neck.

Sips slumbered peacefully in a hammock in the shade. He brushed away the discomfort of his chip clumsily, without waking.

Honeydew awoke screaming, sitting bolt upright in his bed. His scream cut short when he realized where he was. He was deeply confused, and he wondered if it'd all been a dream. But he could remember everything of the blast all too well, though he seemed physically unharmed. Strangely, he wasn't even hungry anymore.

Xephos ran through the doorway with wide eyes. "What's wrong? And how did you get in here without me seeing you?"

Honeydew shrugged helplessly. Eventually he got out of the bed and pushed past Xephos to get outside.

"Follow me."

The dwarf made his way back down into the mine, keenly aware of every sound around him. Xephos' voice made him jump.

"Where are we going? What's wrong, Honeydew?"

He didn't answer. He felt distant and removed from everything. He just walked onwards, eventually reaching the crater. He pointed with one shaking hand.

"I died. Right there." His voice trembled. He jumped down into the crater to retrieve the remnants of his pack. Almost nothing remained in one piece, except some bits of iron ore that he'd intended to smelt later. He held his pick up to the torch light, seeing the damage done to it. Great cracks fissured the iron head, and the wooden handle had been mostly obliterated.

He left it there, and climbed out of the crater. He didn't look at Xephos, and started to make his shaky way up to the surface. Xephos followed without asking any more questions. Both harbored their own secret worries.


	7. Beta

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll actually have something to say here in the more regular updates after this chapter dump lol. Have a wonderful day!

**Chapter 7**

Shortly after Lalna finished recording his success with Project Second Chance, he'd headed back to the room to clean up, since he hadn't in his haste before. He very quickly realized that the program was still running. He turned it off as quickly as he could of course, but he knew that thousands, if not millions of chips had been produced. The display monitor was crowded with vital signs.

The smaller 'helper' microchips communicated amongst themselves, and they seemed to be forming a interconnected 'net' that worked together to service the master chips. Soaring around high above most people's heads, they relayed the information back to the computer.

Lalna noticed that many of the sets of vital signs had identifying icons next to them. Some of the pictures were blurry, and they nearly always looked to be from the viewpoint of another person at conversational distance. The 'net' of helper microchips could sense when two master chips were close by, and take a still shot of the visual data from each, thus identifying the two people. It was an ingenious bit of programming Lalna had completed months before, though he hadn't expected to be testing it just yet.

Mentally, he kicked himself. He'd been so careful up til now, but as soon as he had a breakthrough everything went wrong. He shouldn't have released the program yet; there was sure to be bugs in the coding, and there was no failsafe in case the chip was destroyed before the body totally died. The obvious solution would be to simply shut down the computer, but he couldn't do that.

The master chips would essentially integrate themselves into the host's nervous system. It didn't have any actual control, but it could collect the vital signs, as well as execute the program that activated the helper chips. If the central computer here in front of him went down, there was no telling how people's bodies would react to the foreign object. Most likely everything would be fine, but there was the chance that it would inadvertently kill or paralyze the host. Lalna wasn't sure he could risk that.

Lalna looked up at the monitor again. A handful of the sets of vital signs were flashing at any given time, indicating a revival. He couldn't just stop the computer. People were dying, and he didn't want to imagine what an interrupted revival would look like. The casualties would be even worse now, since word would spread of this new phenomenon. Death wouldn't be feared, and people would begin to risk their lives foolishly, regardless of if the chips were working or not. It was simply too late to end it.

Lalna rubbed his temples and sighed as he sank down into the chair, again facing the computer. He needed to move all of the data to a larger, more secure server., and he needed to establish a better system to organize all the data. He hadn't anticipated the need to parse through so many different data sets.

It was going to be a long few days.

Lalna hit his head against the edge of the desk, a urgent beeping startling him from an unintentional nap. His watch read 02:47. He couldn't fathom why the beeping had started. It was nothing in the room; the tall server that held the program and controlled the data was working fine.

The beeping turned into an alarm, and he realized it wasn't inside the room. He swore and leapt up from the chair, grabbing his lab coat slung over the back. He pulled it on as he rushed down the hallway. It came from Project Beta's room. He hastily verified his identity on the electric lock and barged inside, trying to force down the panic that flared in his stomach. This was just like Alpha.

But to his pleasant surprise, there was no emergency.

The alarm was just one of the sensors that detected brain activity. The specimen was awaking, ready to be 'born' at last. Lalna sighed with relief and pressed a button on the monitor to silence the alarm. He looked over Beta. It did seem to be ready, despite being a few days early. The electrical stimulation had served well to build muscle mass. Beta looked like a full grown adult, ready to leave the tank.

Lalna set up a camera and his tape recorder to document the final stage of the experiment. He spoke aloud as he drained the liquid from the tank, and removed some of the wires from Beta. He also added an IV that administered a sedative to keep the awakening specimen from struggling.

"The casing of the embryonic tank has been removed, and I've strapped down the specimen's waist, ankles, and wrists to keep it secure against the table. Its feet rest on what was previously a side of the tank. I've inserted a small microchip into its arm that relays vital signs to a display in the room. Beta is male, one hundred and ninety centimeters tall, with a statistically proportionate chest, waist, and hip ratio. The specimen's inseam and arm span are greater than a human's, though only slightly, with an arm span of two hundred centimeters and an inseam of ninety three centimeters. Beta is slightly underweight at 78 kilograms, though I can't attribute that to the enderman influence yet. Beta has darkly tanned skin, dark brown hair and pale lilac eyes. I am tilting up the table eighty degrees so the specimen is in a nearly standing position," He did so, "I'm now removing the electrical stimulation from the heart, and the artificial breathing apparatus. If problems arise from this, there is a defibrillator and oxygen standing by."

Extracting the tiny wires from the specimen's heart was delicate work, but went without complications. Without the electrical stimuli, the heart faltered a few times. Lalna tensed, ready to use the defibrillator, but Beta's heart recovered and beat strongly on its own. The specimen's chest rose and fell. Lalna nearly cheered. Now, he only needed to interrupt the flow of sedative and allow the specimen to awaken. Lalna loosened the straps to prevent the specimen from panicking.

Beta's eyes began to move beneath its eyelids without the steady stream of sedative. Some of the specimen's muscles twitched slightly, and soon the pale eyes fluttered open. Lalna took a step back and watched as the specimen slowly examined its hands and wiggled its fingers. After a moment the specimen tried to step forward, and stumbled off of the small platform it stood on. Lalna rushed forward to make sure it wasn't hurt. The specimen noticed him for the first time.

It began to convulse wildly on the ground, and Lalna stood still, eyes on the screen. The brain activity was extremely agitated. The specimen stilled, and the brain activity stopped altogether. It followed the pattern he'd observed before. Lalna waited a moment, unsure if the pattern would hold true and the specimen would recover or not. Just as he was about to leap into action again, the brain activity resumed, suddenly normal again.

Lalna kept observing and after a few moments the specimen opened its eyes again. Immediately it looked towards Lalna with a guttural growl. It tried to drag itself closer to him, and he quickly backed up. The specimen's eyes were blank, and much darker than Lalna had remembered. Lalna's heart started to pound in his ears again. Though the specimen wasn't moving very efficiently and didn't pose much of a threat at the moment, this aggression suggested some failing similar to Alpha's.

As quickly as the aggression had started, it ended again. Beta was again seized by convulsions, and the heartbeat monitor shrilled an alarm. The brain activity spiked and then vanished, and the specimen grew still once more.

In due course, regular brain activity resumed, and the specimen opened its eyes. They seemed wide and innocent; child's eyes in a man's face. Lalna figured it would be better to take the fit that the specimen had suffered in stride than to make a big deal and potentially upset it.

"Hello. Can you understand me?" Lalna kept his tone soft and began to approach the specimen. It nodded, implying that the artificial memory transfer had worked, at least as far as linguistics went. Lalna continued speaking "Excellent, I'm-" Trying to think of a title gave him pause. Though 'Creator' was technically correct, it sounded strange. Saying 'Father' was too personal. He coughed. "I'm just your host. My name is Lalna, Now, how do you feel?"

It was several minutes until the Specimen spoke. It seemed to struggle with the unfamiliar sensation of speech. When it did speak it had a deep voice, with an accent that Lalna couldn't place.

"I'm fine… you are..." It paused, and searched through the memories it had that it couldn't explain. "You are Lalna. A scientist. I am… I don't have a name…. I don't know what I am"


	8. Electroconvulsive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shocking!

**Chapter 8**

Beta stared at the scientist. The specimen's mind was flooded by all the stimulus around. The scientist stood a few feet away. The lights were bright, and the beeping of the tall objects in the room was loud and grating. The scientist was hunched over, to look at him, but Beta couldn't bring himself to look into the blue eyes. The contact was uncomfortable.

_Why do I call myself… Myself? Am I a self, an 'I'? Lalna is a name. 'Host' is a title. Scientist is a profession. Beta is a title, not a name. Do I have a name? What am I? Where am I?_

It was only the last he asked. Beta's head swam in a flurry of thoughts and sensations that couldn't be placed.

"You are in a safe place." The scientist smiled. It was strange, a baring of teeth. It didn't reassure Beta at all.

_Who am I? Why am I Beta? Beta isn't me. What is 'me'? Everything is so loud._

Running through tall golden stalks- _Grass._ Chasing a four-legged lifeform- _dog._ A scraped knee and tears at the feeling- _pain._ A soft woman who comforted the pain- _mother._ But Beta hadn't experienced these things.

Lalna spoke into a small black box. "Beta shows confusion at its surroundings, likely a result of the memory transfer. Beta, can you calm down and answer a few questions for me?"

_It? I am not an 'it'. But what is 'it'? A title, not a name. Do I have a name? A being, a 'myself' must have a name. Lalna has one, Xephos has one, Honeydew has one._

Beta had no faces to put to those names, unlike Lalna's. Beta's head started to hurt.

"Beta? Please calm down, or I'll have to restrain you." Then, into the black box, "It is showing distress, and knocking down supplies and machines. Efforts to calm it have been ineffectual. It seems to be blocking out my voice."

"I am not an it!" Beta roared. Then that sensation again, of pain, like falling and scraping a knee but much more severe. The pain was burning, through the back of the skull, behind the eyes. The suddenness paralyzed Beta's legs, contorting hands into useless claws, and unwillingly narrowed the specimen's eyes to slits. Breathing grew difficult, and the specimen fell.

"Whoa there." Lalna caught the specimen, whose knees had started to buckle. "Still a bit dizzy, huh?" The scientist kept his voice falsely cheerful to hide his worry. Though the Specimen was alive, it seemed to have some serious health issues. Beta wheezed a few times, and its head lulled. The monitor was silent, so the specimen was only unconscious. Lalna shook his head and with difficulty loaded Beta onto a stretcher.

Lalna towed the stretcher out of the room and down a few halls. He stopped at a heavy looking steel plate, with a keypad to the side. It required Lalna to scan his fingerprint and type in the combination. The steel plate disengaged from the floor and rose up into the ceiling, revealing a huge grey room, empty save for a smaller chamber in the middle. The chamber had been made of reinforced concrete pillars for the corners and tempered glass for walls. It had its own heavy door. The chamber had been prepared well in advance, with a bed, a sofa, a few chairs, a table, and a bookshelf. It was simple and comfortable, meant to be a temporary living area until Lalna could make more permanent arrangements based on his observations.

Lalna transferred the specimen into the bed as gently as he could, and took a few vials of blood, along with a couple other tissue samples. Lalna left the chamber and the entire room, locking the doors well behind him,

He had tests to run.

Lalna spent the next few days observing the specimen and running tests in an attempt to understand the strange brainwave patterns that he'd observed. He'd made a few discoveries. The aggravated activity was accompanied by a mass degeneration of the specimen's cells through its body. This led to the rapid failure of many vital systems and the specimen's eventual brain death, signified by the period of no electrical activity. However, during this 'dead' phase, something very peculiar happened. Instead of continuing to decay, Beta's cells reformed, essentially healing themselves. When this process was complete, some small spark would trigger a reset of the brain's electrical activity, and in due time the rest of the body's organs resumed their work. The entire process took anything from fifteen to thirty minutes, and the fits occurred no more than fourteen hours apart. Lalna had run memory and executive function tests on Beta before and after these episodes, and had found no permanent adverse effects to the brain. Furthermore, there was no lasting damage to any part of the specimen. Lalna hadn't discovered how this was possible.

Lalna couldn't imagine how painful the entire affair was. The specimen was essentially being torn apart and thrown back together, over and over.

In addition to the physical oddities of Beta, there were mental ones too. The specimen seemed to have two distinct personalities, which Lalna had labeled Beta-1 and Beta-2. Beta-1 was generally less aggressive and more likely to cooperate, while Beta-2 seemed unable to control its aggression whatsoever. Beta-2 was dangerous, but hadn't had a good grasp of language or bodily control at first. It first learned to walk in an attempt to escape, and upon the failure of that, began speaking to try and convince Lalna to let him out. When met with refusal the first time, Beta-2 lost its temper and threatened him in every way it could. When that didn't work, Beta-2 stopped initiating communication with Lalna, preferring to pound on the walls of the containment chamber and scream aimlessly. No other personalities had yet appeared.

The two personalities never seemed to interact with each other, though they shared headspace. When Lalna questioned Beta-1 about its counterpart, it had seemed surprised and unaware of Beta-2. Switches over control of the body occurred mostly during the degenerative/regenerative fits, though Lalna had observed it happening other times. In those incidences, Beta would abruptly express severe pain and briefly lose consciousness. Occasionally the heart would briefly stop. After a time, all normal function would resume. Beta would be the opposite personality upon awakening.

The two personalities spoke differently, carried themselves differently, and went about solving problems differently. Stranger still, they had different eye colors. While both were shades of purple, Beta-1 had lighter eyes, while Beta-2's were nearly black. Lalna hadn't been able to determine exactly what caused this.

Currently, Lalna was trying to understand Beta-2 better. It seemed to be in control somewhat more often, acting as the 'dominant' personality. He feared that left unchecked Beta-2 would stifle out Beta-1. Lalna wanted to prevent this if possible, since Beta-1 was far more manageable. It would speak with him through speakers in the room, and draw with crayons on paper. Speaking to and observing Beta-1 had given Lalna far more insight than his scientific tests had, so he preferred to keep it around. Even if it was growing somewhat resistant, it wasn't as bad ad Beta-2.

He'd been stumped though. Nothing could seem to keep the agreeable personality around longer, or hold Beta-2 at bay. He tried different medications, and inducing unconsciousness, and hypnotherapy, but nothing had any effect. Today, he was going to try electroshock therapy. He hoped that over stimulating the brain could trigger a personality switch. He'd put off the electroshock as long as he could, in case he found something else that would work. Electroshock would be distressing, because anesthesia couldn't be used. Lalna needed to observe Beta's behaviour during the procedure.

Lalna sighed with apprehension. Dealing with Beta wouldn't be easy. He put on the thick padded suit he always wore when he went into the containment chamber, and pocketed a syringe of sedative in case things went badly as they often did.

Lalna watched the specimen for a few moments through a CCTV. Beta-2 was currently ripping books from their shelves, and hurling them into the glass, which rippled but didn't break. The time window neared for the degenerative process to begin. When the specimen collapsed, Lalna would be able to safely go into the chamber and set up the machines to begin therapy.

It took about an hour for the fit to start. Lalna hurried into the room, towing a cart with a small generator, and a mass of cables. He pulled the specimen up from the ground and settled it into the chair in front of the table. It slumped, hitting its head on the table, and its eyelids fluttered. Alarmed, Lalna quickly bound its hands to the arms of the chair, and its feet to the legs, and inserted an IV port. When Beta fully came to, Lalna had attached electrodes to its temples with medical tape. Wires connected the electrodes to the generator on the cart.

Lalna had barely completed his work in time. The specimen's eyes opened. Beta-1 looked down at the restaurants.

"Huh…?"

"Beta-1 has awoken. I've bound it to the chair to prevent danger to myself during this therapy session. It's expressing some confusion." Lalna spoke to the camera he used to record all sessions with Beta.

"' _He'_ and ' _Rythian'._ " Beta growled. "The scientist shows remarkable stupidity. It has a three second memory. It doesn't seem to notice that I'm right here and can hear it."

"Sorry, _Rythian_." Lalna was somewhat resistant to using the specimen's chosen name and pronouns. It made the whole affair too personal. This was for science after all. But Beta was harder to work with when irate.

"Whatever. What are you doing now?"

"Electroshock therapy." He said it bluntly. Beta was more cooperative when Lalna didn't lie.

Rythian's muscles bunched beneath his simple clothes as he tried to discreetly test the strength of his bindings. "Why do you insist on holding me here? You call yourself my host, but this doesn't seem very welcoming of you."

"It's to help you get better, friend. Just cooperate with me."

Rythian's pale eyes grew steely "Don't call me your friend. And I'm fine! I'm not sick! I don't need to get better."

"Rythian, you know that you have another person in your head with you. You know that he hates me with a passion, and you know he takes control, and would kill someone as soon as he'd look at them. That is why the bindings are necessary. Eventually, wouldn't you rather not have such a person in your mind?" He spoke as if to a toddler.

Rythian scowled at condescending tone but before he could respond, a great shaking seized him. He shouted a garbled word and his head whipped back and forth, an ungodly howl erupting from his throat. His eyes started to flicker between light and dark, and the binds were taut as he pulled against them. He abruptly went limp.

Lalna was thankful for the bindings that held Rythian to the chair. This must be one of the random switches of control, and Beta-2 would soon emerge. Rythian looked up for a moment, eyes still pale.

"Why don't you just kill me?" The eyes flickered once more and he went limp again.

Lalna felt for a pulse, but found nothing. The silence stretched on for several long seconds, and Lalna settled into his chair to wait. Just as Lalna relaxed, Rythian took a heaving breath and violently bolted upright. His eyes were dark as pitch.

"You scum!" His voice echoed off of the walls, deafening. Rythian snarled various offences at Lalna, who paid no mind. The bindings were stretched dangerously tight as Rythian struggled against them.

Lalna picked up a small remote that sat next to the generator on the cart. He pressed a button. Rythian was roaring a string of curses when the current ripped through him. His back arched, and his eyes widened. They turned lighter.

"Why…?" Then fury replaced confusion. "You'll pay in blood! I'll kill you! I'll rip this chamber apart!"

Another shock, but this time there was no change when the seizure hit Rythian. A third shock yielded nothing further. There was nothing to be gained from prolonging this.

Lalna calmly administered the sedative he'd brought through the arm port. Though the specimen did terrify him to a degree, Lalna's hands were steady. Rythian thrashed, glared and swore until he was rendered immobile by the sedative. Lalna knew that despite the size of the dose, it wouldn't last long. Medicines didn't have as strong of an impact on the specimen as they did on ordinary people.

Since his time was limited, Lalna acted quickly, untying the specimen, and removing the electrodes. He also removed the IV port, since Beta-2 would rip it out otherwise. Beta healed quickly, but from experience, Lalna knew Beta-2 would do everything it could to get him into the room. It would be just like Beta-2 to smear the glass with blood to make Lalna come in to clean it. Lalna had to be constantly vigilant for such ruses.

Lalna left the room with everything loaded onto the cart. He secured the door, double checking the lock. He drew up everything the room's sensors had recorded, settling in for a long day of examining everything. By that night though, he'd found no new answers. Beta's personalities remained as much a mystery as ever.


	9. In Which Things Go Wrong

**Chapter 9**

Lalna woke up in the night, feeling confused and uneasy. He wasn't sure, but he thought some sort of sound had awoken him. Seconds later an alarm started blaring. He was out of his bed in an instant, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He recognized the pattern of the alarm's wails; he'd specially chosen it to sound distinct. Containment had been breached.

He rushed it his armory first, hoping Beta hadn't gotten that far. The piercing caterwauls of the alarm drove his heart faster and faster. His hands shook and he dropped his keys twice trying to unlock the armory door. The small room was poorly stocked. He'd neglected weapon development in favor of Beta and his hobby projects, which he deeply regretted now. A prototype jetpack or inoperable laser-gun wasn't going to do any good here.

As it was, he was able to procure a carbon fiber crossbow and a few bolts. He loaded the first bolt right away. If he used it, he'd need to make his shot count. At the least, it would take fifteen seconds to load another. He grabbed a padded vest off of a rack to protect him in case he got into close quarters with Beta. He sheathed a knife at his side, and left the armory.

His next stop was the camera room, where live feeds of every camera in the lab were displayed. He'd hoped to discover Beta's location that way, but found something much more distressing. He'd expected the camera's trained on the containment chamber to show that the door had been forced, or a plate of the tempered glass pushed somehow from its frame. Instead, he saw destruction. The video was grainy, but Lalna could clearly see how every bit of concrete from one side of the chamber had been reduced to rubble.

The floor shook, and a loud crashing sound from the main hall outside of the camera room briefly interrupted the drone of the alarms. Lalna hurried from the room to investigate. Some distance down the hall lay a twisted hunk of metal surrounded by chunks of stone. It was all that remained of what was once a thick containment door that had separated the Beta wing from the rest of the lab.

The specimen stood behind the wreckage. Firelight glowed behind Beta, making the specimen into a silhouette. Its only discernible features were its dark, glittering eyes.

"I said you'd pay. I said I'd rip the chamber apart." The specimen rasped. He was quite a distance away, and Lalna could barely hear him. It sounded as though he'd inhaled smoke from the fires. The heat was just reaching where Lalna stood, and it was uncomfortably strong. He wondered how Beta could withstand standing so close to it.

Despite the heat, he felt a chill go up his spine when the specimen took a few steps closer. He forced his shaking hands still and lifted the crossbow. As he sighted down the scope to ensure a good shot, Beta darted forward, hands in front of him. Lalna pulled the trigger just as a pulse of force lifted him off of his feet and threw him back into a spot where the walls started to curve, some four meters back.

When his left side struck the wall, he felt his right shoulder snap back to hit the wall quickly. The rest of his body didn't twist. Despite the padded vest he felt something in his chest crack, and somewhere in the middle of his back where his body twisted, he felt indescribable pressure building. Sharp stones and bits of rubble caught up in the blast bounced off the wall around him, one gashing open his leg and another slamming into his head. Several small ones gave him various abrasions elsewhere.

The force that had pinned him to the wall vanished, and Lalna slid to the ground with a grunt. The pressure in his back suddenly rushed from him like a burst balloon. His legs wouldn't support his weight, and he was too dazed to put up his hands, so his face slammed down onto the floor. His goggles shattered, and he felt his nose crunch. He lifted his head, but red flooded his vision.

He felt oddly disconnected. He knew he should probably be feeling pain, but all he felt was strange tingly sensations in his legs. There was a warm trickle down the side of his face from where the rock had struck him.

He tried to breathe but couldn't get any air. He started to panic and grow dizzy, gasping like a grounded fish. The breaths he could take tasted of iron. Beta watched this with what seemed like amusement, and Lalna could only watch as it crept closer.

Beta laughed maniacally. "I have powers, Lalna. I can do things you'd never imagine." The already eerie shine from his eyes intensified. His hands were engulfed in dark violet flames.

Lalna tried to cover his face, as if that would protect him. Something ground together in his shoulder and he whimpered, spots of pain blinding him further. He wished he was numb and floaty again. He quivered like one of the mice he used in experiments. It was a primal fear of the unknown.

Beta chuckled again, eyeing the scientist coldly. It was plainly enjoying the shift of power.

"Death is too merciful for scum like you" With every word it took a long stride forward. When it stopped it was only a few steps from the scientist. Up to its elbows was nothing but swirling purple flame. "But it's the best I can do." He lifted his hands up, the turbulent fire gathering into a deadly ball.

Lalna's mind was nothing but an eddy of raw panic. He knew that even with the microchip in his neck he could die if it was destroyed quickly enough, or if it malfunctioned somehow. That was more likely than he liked to admit; the program was very buggy. Hundreds of permanent deaths had been recorded due to failings of that nature. He wanted to throw himself at the specimen's feet and plead for his life, if only he could move.

Somehow, a shred of sanity broke through his haze of terror. Beta-2 had control of the situation, and wouldn't hesitate to kill him. It was entirely likely that the chip would fail or be destroyed. But he wouldn't die begging for mercy. He tried to push himself up, but his arms collapsed, unable to support the weight he put on them. The grinding in his shoulder was worse this time. His eyesight went tinged with black for a moment. So much for a final stand.

Still, some new strength flowed through him, a will to survive despite the odds. He took as deep a breath as his pained ribs would allow and forced his bloodied eyes to meet those eerie glowing ones. He glared at Beta in silent defiance, daring it to step closer and strike the resistance from his battered body.

He expected Beta to do just that, but to his surprise it hesitated. Beta stared at him for a long moment, and Lalna coughed weakly. He felt warm and floaty again, but he kept his gaze trained on the specimen.

Beta's dark eyes widened and its jaw went slightly slack. A long low moan worked out of its throat and it doubled over, then fell to its hands and knees looking down at the floor. The fires burning behind the blown-out door seemed to lessen in intensity. Beta shuddered on the ground. Only a moment passed before it looked up, its gaze soft and weary.

"I don't like you any better than he does. I only tried to stop him before because I didn't want your death on my hands. If you hadn't made him hesitate, I doubt you'd be alive right now. His pause was all that let me seize control." Beta walked towards Lalna, who drew his head back, eyes clouded. Beta mistook the movement for a sad attempt to put up a fight. It looked incredulous. "You know that if you try to stop me, he might take control again. That won't go well for you."

Lalna barely nodded, numbness folding comfortably around him. Beta stood above him now, with glowing hands, It wasn't the same fiery glow as before, instead a faintly luminous mist coalesced about Beta's hands and drifted slowly to Lalna. The mist enveloped him like a blanket.

He felt something shift in his back, and the comfortable numbness fled screaming. He cried out and stopped taking even shallow breaths. He could feel how broken the bones in his legs were. The pain only intensified as the bones straightened themselves out. His shoulder popped and he breathed again, to scream. His scream was cut off by a rough bout of coughing, and blood sprayed from his mouth. Suddenly he was able to breathe properly. The trickling of the blood his face slowed, and the gash on his leg itched ferociously. Even worse was the sensation of his nose clicking back into place. His eyes watered ferociously, which cleared the blood from them somewhat. He got his first decent look at the specimen.

It was wearing the padded armor Lalna usually wore while checking on him. It stood taller and prouder, freed from the restraints of the containment chamber. Then Lalna noticed Beta's face. Huge burns shone angrily across the bottom half of his face. The burns looked old, due to the specimen's quick healing.

Lalna's vision started to blur again, exhaustion pressing down on him. The mist started to dissipate, and Lalna couldn't feel much. Everything weighed on him like a heavy dream.

Rythian suddenly clutched his head. "No…. NO!" His eyelids fluttered, and he shot a worried glance at Lalna. "I've got to get away!" He hissed through clenched teeth. He charged down the hall, past Lalna, and after a moment something shook the floor.

Lalna didn't feel concerned at all, drifting away on violet clouds.


	10. Escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Hey guys! Right so,as y’all know there are two separate entities inside Rythian. They call each other Brother, secondary personality at the time= italics. That should be about all you need to understand, I think... Sorry for the delay in publishing, I had a long week. Enjoy the story and have a wonderful day!)

Rythian could feel Brother slithering into his mind, trying to force him from control. He couldn’t let Brother take charge now. As much as he wanted Lalna to feel every ounce of pain he’d caused, Rythian wasn’t a murderer, no matter what Brother tried to convince him was justice. Beating the scientist close to death and gloating over his broken body was more than enough payback.

Rythian struggled against the other consciousness. Behind his eyeballs burned. Brother started to overpower him, and it felt like sharp nails were being driven into his skull. He looked at Lalna, dazed and nearly unconscious despite the strange healing mist Rythian had been able to conjure. If Brother could take control here, Lalna would be dead in an instant.

_ “Don’t resist Brother.” _ The voice purred. The pain lessened somewhat.

“No…”

_ “You just make it harder for yourself. Let me.”  _

Rythian clenched his fists. “NO!” His defiance would lead to worse pain, he knew. But he couldn’t kill a helpless man in cold blood. The wrathful stabbing pains renewed with vigor, and he staggered where he stood.  “I've got to get away!” He looked to the scientist for a moment, searching for any indication of where ‘away’ was.

Lalna gazed back with a blank face of vague shock and confusion. No answers there. Rythian charged past the scientist, who didn’t even follow him with his eyes. Small bits of rubble crunched under Rythian’s feet. His feet bled, but he was too focused on putting as much distance between himself and Lalna as possible.

A stone wall lay between him and the outside world. He hadn’t been in control when Brother had knocked down the walls deeper inside the maze of the laboratory, but he had seen and felt what he had done. He held a hand in front of him, mirroring Brother’s earlier actions. He had healed Lalna without much trouble. This couldn’t be much harder. He took a  deep breath, and passionate thoughts flooded his mind. His muscles began to tremble as he recalled the fury he’d felt when Lalna had tied him up to electrocute him, and of every time he’d been called ‘it’ or ‘Beta’. 

The emotion stirred up angry heat that consumed his insides. His heart pounded in his ears, and his muscles trembled as he felt the force grow too much to bear. He was outside of himself, a violent euphoria behind his eyes. He was nothing next to the tempest of power that was suddenly forced from him in one explosive burst.

As full of emotion as he’d felt, he was empty now. Numbingly so, cold already gripping his fingers and toes. Parts of the wall had been blown outwards.

_ “Not bad.”  _

Rythian hardly registered him, except to briefly appreciate that he wasn’t under mental attack any longer. Past the crumbling wall he could see pale light. Cautiously he made his way towards it. The closer he got, the quicker he moved. Intoxicating fresh air tingled in his nose.

When he stood outside, he dug his toes into the soft grass. He decided that no other feeling could compare. Unless it was the way the cool night air ruffled his hair, or maybe the way the moonlight lit everything so differently than the fluorescent white of the lab. Nothing here was made up of straight lines or cold steel. Rythian briefly entertained the thought of rolling around on the grass like a child.

_ “Are you through?” _

“Shut up.” Pressure on the back of Rythian’s skull spoiled the pleasant feelings.

_ “If you’re not going to give me control, get us out of here before I change my mind and force it.” _

After a last look at the gaping hole in the wall, Rythian raced away. He ran as long as he could, but he had never run any considerable distance before, and his legs tired after a short time. As he became weary, he stumbled and fell several times. His knees and palms were raw and bloody, to say nothing of the bottoms of his feet.

Eventually he staggered off of the path, retching and falling to his hands and knees. He could feel his legs trembling, his muscles still trying to move. He sunk down to his stomach. Dry leaves crackled under his body. He lay there for a few minutes, straining to catch his breath. After a few moments he raised his head and looked about. He hadn’t realized just how thick the woods had gotten. The trees here were much larger than he expected from the murky memories he’d woken up with. 

_ “This must be the forest where Martyn and Toby live.” _

“Who?” He didn’t speak aloud, just thought the words.

_ “.... I don’t know. Big forest, those people live here. I don’t know who they are though. It’s those foggy memories. You must have them too.” _

Something clicked for Rythian. The names Martyn and Toby were closely associated with the spaceman Xephos and the dwarf Honeydew in his mind. Rythian had several of the strange memories that concerned Xephos and Honeydew. He felt inclined to immediately dislike them, since they were also closely associated with Lalna in his mind. Still, he had never met them.

  
“I do have some of those memories… I supposed we’d have the same ones. I haven’t really had time to  think about it much. We should work together and try to fill each other in.”

_ “That’s a great idea, but we should work together to kill Lalna first. You’ve made your point, now let me do what I want.” _

“No, I won’t let you kill. It’s just not right. Isn’t it enough to have gotten away?” 

_ “No! Do you enjoy the pain? He made us this way! We heal too quickly to die, but we were never destined to survive, so we will be in constant agony! It’s his fault!”  _  He threw himself against Rythian’s mind to send his point home. Rythian felt his neck muscles spasm, and his head pounded. Rythian sighed, knowing that the voice was right about the healing. His knees and his palms were shiny and pink with new skin. The skin of his soles crawled and itched unpleasantly.

“But we  _ are _ alive, for good or bad, and we might as well make the most of it. It’s a beautiful thing, painful as it might be. I can’t imagine taking this away from someone.. Let him live, and we will go far away. We can try to find a cure for the pain. None of our memories mention people like us with powers. We can learn new things and find better ways to use this power. I still feel somewhat hollow from all of that craziness earlier.”

_ “Yes.”  _ Brother sounded pleased.  _ “We will practice and become stronger. Then we return to kill the scientist in a better way!” _

Rythian didn’t know how to dissuade him. “Listen, I hate the scientist as much as you, but I think we taught Lalna his lesson. He won’t be messing with us, I'm sure. And if he does, it’s not like we’re defenseless.” 

As he said this Rythian pulled on the pool of force inside of him and made a purple spark jump along his fingertips. Using it at will like this instead of with wild emotion felt strange, and it took a different sort of concentration. The electricity leapt the few inches from his hand to the ground, which made a few leafs ignite and crumble away. The fire put itself out, much to Rythian’s relief. The fire in the lab had been terrifying.

_ “Fine, unless he bothers us again, I won’t seek him out. If he confronts us I can’t guarantee anything.”  _

Rythian nodded slowly. It was the best he could ask for, and indeed it was the same way he felt. If Lalna hadn’t learned to leave him alone after this night, and came after him, he wouldn’t fret over morals quite so much. 

_ “I’ve been thinking about how uncomfortable switching control is. It feels just as awful for me as it does for you. Maybe the pain wouldn’t be so bad  if we don’t resist each other. I’m going to try to take control now, and don’t fight me.” _ Without any more warning, he began.

It felt like Brother was slowly smothering Rythian, and he couldn’t help a tiny start of panic. When he tensed, pain shot out from the base of his skull down his spine and to his arms and legs, tracing invisible lines. Brother stopped his advance and held himself there, halfway in control. 

_ “Take a few breaths.” _ His voice was strained. Rythian followed Brother’s instructions, and fought down the dread he felt at being out of control. Brother continued his intrusion. Rythian kept taking slow, steady breaths, though he felt like he was drowning. After only a few more twinges, he was an observer.

_ “Thank you. That was not as bad as before.” _

“I know.” Rythian grinned. A dangerous light came to his dark eyes and he got to his feet. He held his hands up and wiggled his fingers, then summoned a wispy thread of flame. It flowed around his hands like quicksilver.

“Our magic is different.” He pointed out.

_ “Yes,”  _ Brother agreed.  _ “That’s pretty interesting. I don’t know why.”  _

Rythian forced a little more energy out, and the fire grew stronger. Instead of snaking around his hands, the blaze started to crawl up his arms.  Rythian ignored Brother’s instances to be careful and let the fire cloak both of his arms to the elbow.  He chuckled to himself, surrounded in fire. It didn’t burn him; in fact, he felt stronger. It was like a total opposite of the fire at the lab. 

The lab fire had started when Rythian stumbled into a cart and knocked some glassware to the floor. There had been a loud pop and a bright flash of light, and Rythian had jumped back, black spots in his vision. He’d been able to hear a small fire crackling once the ringing had cleared from his ears. From there, the fire kept growing, though there wasn’t any fuel. He’d realized it might threaten him, so he tried to get away from it, but as he fled it seemed to chase him. The fire caught his pant leg, and exploded into an inferno. It felt as though it sapped his strength, somehow, as it consumed him. His only memory of the next few minutes had been blind and deaf pain, as he tore himself from the flames and sought safety.

His vision had returned quickly and the pain was only a memory. Recalling it now though, Rythian realized the skin on his face felt odd like it was stretched tight.

He closed both of his hands, and the fire around him instantly vanished. He felt his cheek, surprised by the stiff, scabby ridges.

“Why didn’t my face heal? All of the other injuries we’ve ever gotten have.”  There wasn’t any pain or discomfort from the burns, and the tight feeling was already fading, but he had never had a lasting mark on his body before.

_ “I don’t know. Maybe the burns were too bad for us to heal all at once”  _ Brother suggested.  _ “Or it’s something else. The flames drew power from us when it made contact with our skin. Perhaps that had something to do with it.” _

“Naturally that damn scientist had some compound on hand that would permanently mark us! Something we couldn’t heal that would leave scars like this! How are we meant to live normal lives away from here, and avoid Lalna when we will be the most recognizable person around?”  

Brother could tell that Rythian was growing irate, but was stumped. He had no calming words to offer. He hadn’t thought far beyond getting away from the lab before Rythian could kill Lalna.

The strange unearthly glow that had surrounded Rythian in the lab was shimmering around him again. Blackish fire again encased his arms. He cast a river of flames at the giant trunk of a nearby tree, wordlessly roaring in frustration. Brother frantically tried to soothe him. It worked after a few moments. The anger slowly faded from Rythian’s features, and he panted for a moment, tired from the sudden expulsion of power.

“Hey! What were you just doing to my tree?! Get away from it!” A new voice cried weakly behind him.

Rythian started and spun around, ready to reduce the intruder into a pile of ashes. 

_ “NO! Give me control! NOW!”  _

Brother didn’t wait for Rythian to concede, and forced him out. Rythian resisted as little as he could, realizing the pain he would feel otherwise. This begrudging release of control was still painful, but worlds better than what it was otherwise.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toby watched in shock as the stranger that had been burning his tree started to tremble. He didn’t lower his guard, but every second that went by made him surer that the newcomer wouldn’t attack. The unfamiliar person soon stopped his shaking, and opened his eyes. Toby immediately noticed the strange shade of lilac. The stranger smiled at Toby and took a step closer. 

“Stop it.” Toby ordered, nodding towards his bow. He couldn’t draw his eyes away from the stranger’s face. Odd blackish-purple marks formed a disorganized pattern, graceful and terrifying at the same time. Though they looked long healed, Toby wondered what could have caused the horrific scars. He noticed that similar disfigurements formed two bands on the man’s lower arms. Toby forced his attention from the scars, keeping a watchful eye on the stranger.

“Hello, you’re Martyn, right?” The stranger asked softly.

“No.”

“Oh, Toby then.” The scars around the man’s mouth curved as he smiled.

He paused for a second but Toby's face seemed to be made of stone. The man tried again “You’re probably worried about your tree, right?” 

“Yeah, you were  _ burning  _ it!” Toby growled. He thought for a moment, and then asked “And how do you know my name? Or Martyn’s?” Toby was straining not to show it, but he felt the burning the tree suffered in his own side. It was what had brought him running here to confront this guy.

“I know things.” The scars again curved “Now let me explain. I was walking through the forest, and noticed that this tree alone among the others was weak and sickly, though still glorious by any other measure.”

Rythian desperately hoped this was true, or he was in trouble. Brother had told him that the fogged memories suggested that the woods people had strong ties to these trees. He continued his lie. 

“I was simply burning away the illness, so that I might heal it.” Rythian watched the brown haired kid nod slowly to himself. It seemed like the story was passable.

“Well, let’s see this healing.” He said, trying to keep his voice level. Excitement drummed in his belly. This guy obviously wasn’t normal, shooting fire from his hands and all, but if he could heal trees, that could mean something different entirely.

Rythian took a deep breath and faced the scorch mark on the trunk of the massive tree. It looked severe but was tiny compared to the bulk of the rest of it. He wasn’t sure if his healing would fix the tree the same way it had fixed Lalna’s injuries, but he had to try. If he didn’t he could expect an arrow in his back, which while probably healable still wouldn’t be pleasant. Even worse, this woodsman might go to the scientist. He held his hand up in front of him, well aware of the bow still pointed at his back. 

He noticed the sun rising, and the stunning colors in the sky he could see through the leaves filled him with joy. The purples and pinks and oranges seemed so natural and beautiful, he just couldn’t control the peculiar floating sensation he felt.  He gathered all of the positive feelings inside of him and forced them out of his hands. 

A curling lavender vapor drifted lazily over to the tree. The burn was the first to heal. It was erased with only the tiniest amount of effort. The bulk of the energy went into solving long lasting problems. A microscopic pest that plagued the tree suddenly died in droves. The leaves became an unbelievably vibrant shade of green, despite fall being on the way. The tree had been slightly droopy, but with a groan it straightened up, and multicolored blossoms began to shower down from above. It was healthier and statelier than it had ever been. The last of the mist, unneeded, drifted away into the treetops, far, far above.

Rythian lowered his hands, spent from the amount of energy he had just channeled. The joy of the sunset had left him. He turned wearily and saw Toby looking at him with a mix of awe and worship. Toby had looked very tired and weak before, but like his tree, seemed to be in perfect health now.

When Rythian caught Toby's gaze, Toby snapped out of some sort of trance. He dropped his bow to the ground and fell to his knees. Rythian took a step back, unsure how to react. Toby looked at the ground as he spoke quickly and reverently.

“My lord, I am so sorry I raised my bow against you! Had I but known you were the One I would have welcomed you with the respect you deserve.”

_ “What the hell is he talking about?”  _ Brother asked Rythian, who shrugged. He then asked the question to Toby in a slightly politer way. 

Toby's eyes widened. “You mean to say you didn’t know you were the One? You have to come with me, please. These woods are safe enough during the day, but we have to arrange proper living quarters for you before today’s end. Also, we have a special ceremony today, and having the One witness it would be an unimaginable honor. You’re a reincarnation of one of history's greatest heroes.”

_ “Is that so?”  _ Brother snarked.

Silently, Rythian responded to Brother. “It’s better than losing our way in the woods. We can stay with him and the other one, Martyn and find out who it is they think we are.” Brother agreed wordlessly.

Rythian asked that Toby get up from the ground. Though he didn’t say so out loud, having someone bow to him was uncomfortable, despite how Brother enjoyed it.

When Toby arose, things were a bit more casual. He led Rythian along a path towards his house. After a moment of walking he grinned, and Rythian asked why. 

Toby smiled even wider, “Martyn never believed the legends, and always said that you would never return. He even doubted that you existed in the first place. Now I've found the One…” he paused. “By the way, if you don’t mind me asking; what’s your name? I can’t keep calling you The One. It’s a title, not a proper name.”

“My name is Rythian.” He immediately kicked himself for not giving a fake name.

Toby nodded.  After several more minutes along the trail, he asked another question. “The uh, scars on your face. How did you get them?”

Rythian's expression darkened, “I’ve always had them.” He said quickly. “I don’t know how I got them.” In his mind, Brother laughed bitterly. 

They walked the rest of the way in silence.


End file.
